Which states have the highest police officer salaries?

How much do police officers earn where you live? Disparities in police officer salaries reveal some regional trends and insight into how their pay stacks up against other public service professions. Here’s what data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.

In 2022, the national average police officer salary was $65,790. California led with the highest median salary: $104,160. Washington ($94,107), New Jersey ($88,100), Illinois ($86,130), and Hawaii ($86,080) also had officer salaries above the national average.

The lowest police officer salaries were in Mississippi (with an annual salary of $37,240), Arkansas ($39,040), Louisiana ($44,620), South Carolina ($46,800), and West Virginia ($46,960). Police wages in these states are still comparatively low even when adjusting for the cost of living. After adjusting for these differences, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and South Carolina still had the lowest salaries.
Police in California’s San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan area earned $132,930 a year, the highest in the nation even when accounting for the area’s cost of living.
Police and sheriff’s patrol officers’ median pay in 2022 was about $3,400 higher than pay for high school teachers and over $10,000 higher than wages for firefighters and postal workers.

Law enforcement agencies provide police officers benefits such as earlier retirement plans and paid overtime. The Justice Department’s Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program offers death and education benefits to the survivors of police officers killed in the line of duty.

Explore more comparisons in this article.

Where are you most at risk for tick-borne diseases?

Reports of tick bites rise every spring and summer. The number of tick bites and related illnesses people get in the US are hard to quantify since reporting is optional, and health departments nationwide have different standards for what they report. But instances of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses are rising year over year.

Lyme disease is the most prevalent tick-borne disease in the United States. There were 63,000 reported cases in 2022, nearly 19 per 100,000 people, up from 7.21 per 100,000 in 2018. But the CDC estimates that 476,000 people receive treatment yearly.
Approximately 48,500 tick-borne disease cases were reported annually from 2016 to 2022. Lyme disease accounted for 74% of them.

Map showing reported Lyme disease cases by county

From 2016 to 2019, Pennsylvania recorded 29.2% of all Lyme disease cases, followed by New Jersey with 11.7% and New York with 11.6%.
Ten percent of tick-borne diseases were spotted fever rickettsiosis, with Arkansas, Alabama, and North Carolina reporting the highest rates. Seven percent of cases were Anaplasmosis, with New York, Wisconsin, and Vermont reporting the highest rates. Anaplasmosis can be fatal if left untreated; spotted fever rickettsiosis doesn’t typically have long-term effects.
The CDC attributes increasing tick-borne diseases to suburban development in places where ticks are more likely to live. It also notes that changing climate patterns affect the locations and seasonality of tick bites.

Learn more about these diseases and where they most commonly occur.

Data behind the news

President Joe Biden issued an executive order that bars entry to the US for migrants who cross the southern border illegally to restrict asylum. Here’s how many people seek asylum in the US.

June 6 marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day. As of 2021, there were 182,600 WWII veterans in the United States. In 2010, there were 2.1 million.

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One last fact

Map showing how US emissions compare to the rest of the world

The US was responsible for 13.8% of global carbon dioxide emissions in 2021. The nation’s share of these emissions has fallen from 25.4% in 1980, partly due to growing emissions from Asia. China’s share of global carbon dioxide emissions grew from 8.5% in 1980 to 32.2% in 2021. India’s grew from 1.4% to 6.7%.